Page 53 of Sigils & Spells

Ramsey had the decency to look abashed.

“I couldn’t help it. I can’t control it,” he whined.

I grabbed the front of his coat and pulled him up on his toes. Bringing his face close to mine. I snarled.

“Nothing will ever be effective if you aren’t willing to do the work. If you want to let that demon ride your ass from now until eternity, then leave. Go out into the wild, get away from people, get away from populations and go feral. If you’re lucky, someone will shoot your ass. You’re lucky that hasn’t happened already.”

I let go and he stumbled backward.

He staggered and regained his balance before brushing down the front of his coat and finding his composure.

“It’s your job to excise this demon. If anyone is at fault here, it’s you. You are failing me.” He turned and began making his way out of the tree line.

“I gave you a daily ritual to keep that thing in check while I did the research to figure out the origins of that thing. It’s a missing part of a very complex puzzle. The ritual—”

“The ritual stopped working.” He spun on me.

“Why didn’t you say something?”

He shrugged.

Fuck, I would need to figure out another ritual, something that would keep the demon suppressed while I searched for the spell that would free him. I had found plenty of spells that technically should free him, but they all pretty much left him dead. Separated from the demon that rode his ass, but dead.

“I didn’t need it anymore. The demon wasn’t putting pressure on my brain—”

“Stop.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Let me get this straight. The ritual was working, the demon wasn’t bothering you, so you didn’t think you needed the ritual anymore, so you stopped. And then the demon reappeared, and the ritual isn’t working anymore?”

Ramsey looked up at the sky and pursed his thin lips together. “Sounds about right.”

“Fuck.” I stormed past him, swung around— the tails of my coat spun out dramatically, which is exactly why I stole it all those years ago— “You complete moron. The demon wasn’t bothering you because the ritual was doing its job. Not that you got unpossessed.”

I reached out, my hand in a tense claw. I snapped my hand shut and pinched my finger and thumb together as if I had caught a fly.

“Go home. Do the fucking ritual. I have research to do.” I swung back around and stormed off.

The walk back to my rooms at the Capitulum took me past The Cellar. I paused and looked up at the windows of the second floor restaurant. Would Pandora still be eating her lunch?

What would I say to her?

The familiar loud purr of a Vespa engine hit my awareness. I glanced over. Pan puttered past. Her white helmet with red stripe easily identifying her.

CHAPTER4

Pandora

Rain turned to sleet and then stopped, leaving everything cold and damp. Or maybe that was just me. I was not in the mood to return to work after lunch. Merle and Ramsey ran out of there like the building was on fire. Ironic, since as soon as they were gone, Ash Weiss, the chief of the fire department, sauntered in.

An overly friendly waitress helped Darren get cleaned up and brought him a new burger. It was Darren’s superpower. He made the women swoon. Hell, even I had slept with him,

I couldn’t believe I had done that. What a stupid move.

I overheard Ash and Darren talk about some prize chickens getting torn up pretty bad. I didn’t recognize the name of the farmer involved, but I could only imagine how upset they would have been. It wasn’t until Ash lowered his voice that I started to actively try to listen in. It had to be juicy if the Fire Chief was gossiping.

On my way back to work, thoughts of how he had described the chickens bothered me. He hadn’t said anything about raccoons or even a bobcat. There was something about his choice of words and the fact that he had been shifty about the whole thing that wasn’t sitting right.

If I wanted to know the gossip, I was going to have to go to the gossip mill. The biggest source would have been a Ladies Auxiliary event, or a weekly meeting. I had to be a member to get into a meeting, or a guest of one.

I slid along the counter that ended above the area Claudette had for her desk.

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